We may be seeing Harry Potter's invisibility suit sooner than we think...

Although the cloaks may sound like something from Harry Potter, researchers in London were today given the go-ahead for a £4.9 million project to create a real invisibility suit.

In JK Rowling's stories, the young wizard uses his cloak to move around his school unseen.

Fiction made real? Scientists have rendered a tiny lump of gold invisible in 3D, paving the way for the possibility of a real-life Harry Potter invisibility cloak

Making an appearance: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) when he's visible

Today, researchers at Imperial College said such a garment could soon become a reality. They hope to create a cloak from a new material that can manipulate light.

Normally, when light hits an object, it bounces off the surface and into the eye, making the object visible.

The invisibility cloak made from 'meta-material' would work by 'grabbing hold' of light waves and making them flow smoothly around an object, in the same way that water in a river flows round a stick.

Putting the cloak on would render the wearer invisible to the human eye.

The team at Imperial College say the meta-material could have a
range of other applications, including creating super-sensitive
microscopes and airport security sensors that can spot tiny amounts of
chemicals.

However, they admit the Harry Potter cloak is likely to generate the most interest.

Sir
John Pendry, who is leading the project, which is being funded by the
Leverhulme Trust and will be carried out with the University of
Southampton, said: 'We've shown that an optical invisibility cloak is
theoretically possible - the big challenge now is to build it.'

A photo of 'meta-material', which can deflect microwave beams so they flow around a 'hidden' object

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We may be seeing Harry Potter's invisibility suit sooner than we think